Jammu and Kashmir News

Srinagar, May 26: Secretary of the Jammu and Kashmir Cultural Academy (JKCA), Aziz Hajini, has reached the conclusion that his daughter should be promoted in the educational cadre even as others claim being ignored. The decision was taken during the meeting of Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) and that too within the six months of his appointment.

As per the official order of April 7, 2016, Hajini’s daughter Asmat Aziz is the only employee of JKCA in the editorial cadre who has been promoted from the post of proof reader to research assistant with effect from November 16, 2016. Asmat is a postgraduate in Urdu and was appointed in Kashmiri section of the JKCA by former secretary Zaffar Manhas on November 16, 2010.

The annual DPC meeting was held on April 5 this year after a delay of over two years. According to the order, the seniority of the promoted officials will be reckoned as per inter seniority maintained by the JKCA in their respective cadres and under Article 24 of J&K Civil Services Rules,1956. However, JKCA officials claimed the DPC was convened by the “custodian of Kashmir culture only to promote his daughter”.

As per the officials, over a dozen other employees who have already achieved higher grade were not confirmed in the meeting and they objected that even if the secretary’s daughter deserved the promotion by all standards, on ethical grounds, the head of the JKCA should have withheld it.

Besides his daughter, Hajini has promoted five other employees in the technical cadre of the JKCA. Some officials allege that in order to pave way for promotion of his brother-in-law, Hajini promoted the mike operator in the technical cadre.

To all this, Hajini, said that he was reluctant to conduct the DPC meeting but after the employees protested he had to convene it. In the meeting, he found his daughter in the editorial cadre and other five employees in the technical cadre eligible for the promotion and could not stop it. Hajini added that other employees were not eligible for promotion and were placed in higher grades in violation of norms.

Late CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had appointed Hajini as secretary after the post had remained vacant for more than one year. Hajini was earlier Assistant Professor, Centre for Sheikh-ul-Alam Studies, University of Kashmir.